Welcome to the AC Tropical Fish aquarium forum. Our aquarium forum is the place to discuss any aquarium related issue in a friendly environment. Our aquarium forum welcomes aquarists of all levels from beginners to experts. Please ask a question in the how to section of our forum or read the FAQ section if you have any questions. register to and become a part of our friendly aquarium forum community today.

For the first time in months, my quarantine tank is empty, has been for a week or so. After my last water test the nitrates were a bit higher than I'd like, so I'm stepping up my water change schedule. If I can get my nitrates to drop a lot then I'll finish filling out my threadfin school, and if they only drop a little then I'll consider the tank fully stocked.

Which means that it's time to start thinking about my next couple projects.

The very next one will be to move the tank - my wife and I decided that rather than renting an apartment when our lease is up at the end of April we'll get a house instead, which for one thing means that after we move this tank once it's going to stay put for at least 5-6 years. The loose idea I have to manage it is to get a bunch of cheap Styrofoam coolers and draining tank water into them, and putting the fish in there to move (however far we have to move it won't be more than a half hour away from where we are now, but I do need some time for taking down the tank itself and putting it back together). I'll probably get one extra to put the plants and filter material in. As for the tank itself, I'm going to pull the rocks, driftwood, and equipment out - but can I get away with leaving the substrate in? I just worry that if I remove the substrate to move the tank and then pour it back in, the water will again be an opaque black cloud when I refill it with water, and would have to leave the fish in the coolers overnight which would probably kill a bunch of them.

Aside from moving, the next plan I'm trying to sell my wife on is a 20g saltwater shrimp tank so that I can start picking up some practice with saltwater tanks.

In other news, my dwarf tears are all gone - the next tank I do I'm going to let the plants get established before adding fish. And my trumpet snail problem is gone, I simply pulled out the snails every time I saw one and it's been nearly a month now since I've seen any in the main tank. But now my qt tank is filled with them and I need to figure out what to do with them now that it's time to take my qt tank down. Call me a softie, but I don't want to just kill them outright. At the same time, I definitely do not want to add them back to the main tank. So I've got to figure out what to do there.

While I was changing the water on Friday two of the platies decided to come to the water's surface and blow bubbles, and I manged to get it on camera. Can't figure out how to embed the video, so
.